elric of melnibone

by Michael Moorcock

Containing "Elric of Melnibone", "The Fortress of the Pearl", "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate", "The Dreaming City", "While the Gods Laugh" and "The Singing Citadel" this is one of the Millennium Uniform Editions of Moorcock's work, omnibus volumes with revised texts and new introductions.

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4 comments

FSUB | 2015-07-08 04:13:52

These books are totally worth reading. Forget about pretty princesses and brave heroes. Elric is a reluctant antihero that does what it has to survive, nothing else. The irony of Moorcock creates a world where you get what you bargained for, and not good deed goes unpunished, a bit so retro that is totally fresh.

walterw | 2015-08-15 06:43:28

the elric stories were among the first to start unraveling the cliche of the fantasy protagonist as a relentlessly pure and noble hero and approach things from a more sophisticated, nuanced literary perspective.
as the last, outcast emperor of an essentially evil race who is trying in an almost intellectual way to learn what it means to be "good", elric is moody, conflicted, prone to irrational or cruel urges and doesn't always (or even often) do the right thing.
he also happens to be carrying perhaps the most powerful and dangerous weapon in all of fantasy fiction, the sentient black sword stormbringer, essentially a character all its own (and a frightening one).
this series is a must-read, i'd guess that most darker modern fantasy has more in common with it than it does with the more straightforward and "heroic" tolkien or even burroughs and that ilk.
the first 6 books (they're not huge volumes) are the actual complete story, the rest (while interesting) were written decades later and don't really change the narrative arc.

lullaby | 2016-01-06 03:31:03

I love these books so much, the whole concept of the multiverse and the eternal champion and the fight between the lords of law and chaos has always fascinated me ever since I read Moorcock's Chorum saga as a child.
When I then started reading Elric I was just soo fascinated by his whole character. He is dark, bitter and cynical. He is selfish but often does the right thing if it overlaps with his own interests. He battles gods and men alike, whoever gets in his way has to pay. He slaughters armies of thousands all by himself with a demonic laugh that haunts any survivors in their sleep, swinging his cursed sword that sucks in the victims souls and captures them for eternity in a place worse than hell.
The saga's really worth reading.

scarter | 2016-10-25 09:05:47

Stormbringer introduced me to fantasy nearly 45 years ago. Have loved it ever since. Elric was one of the first anti heroes i ever met in literature.